The Eye Opener

The Eye Opener

John 9:1-11

Over the past several weeks we’ve been looking at the miracles recorded in the Gospel of John so that we can see how Jesus’ can make our impossible situations possible. This week, however, I want to skip over the fifth miracle of Jesus walking on water since we’ve looked at that miracle in the past so that we can finish next week.

Read v. 1

It’s hard for us to imagine what life must have been like for this man in our passage this morning; he was born blind. He didn’t know what a rainbow or a flower looked like. He had never witnessed the sight of a sunset. He didn’t even know what his parents looked like. For this man, the world was colorless and formless.

The good news is that when he met Jesus there was a miraculous change in his life! He received the gift of sight and then later he received the gift of eternal life through faith in Christ! This miracle not only met his physical need, but more importantly it met his greatest need of all… his need of a Savior!

There are several important eye-openers that we can gain from this miracle that will help give us a positive outlook when we face problems in our lives. The first eye-opener we find in our passage this morning is to:

1. Look for blessing, not blame.

If you want to experience joy in your life, then you need to have a good attitude. In this passage, what you’ll see is a contrast between the positive attitude of Jesus with the different examples of negative attitudes around Him. Right off the bat, we see that the first group of people who needed an attitude adjustment was the disciples.

Read v. 2

Now obviously there are consequences to the sin in our lives, but our problems aren’t always the result of that sin. The next time you have a problem in your life, rather than looking someone or something to blame, there’s another option. Let’s look at how Jesus responded:

Read v. 3

Here we have specific instructions from Jesus Himself on what to do when we’re faced with a problem - look at it as an opportunity for God to display His power and love.

It’s a shame that the disciples didn’t look at the blind man with a desire to help Him; instead they wanted to start a theological discussion. People don’t need a consultation when they’re facing problems; they need help. We shouldn't care as much about why they’re hurting as the fact that they are hurting.

If you were in a car accident and were bleeding to death in the ER, how would you feel if the doctor came in and wanted to talk about the Greek word for hospital or the history of the stethoscope? Everything he said to you might be true but it would also be irrelevant because it doesn’t stop your pain.

We don’t always need to know why problems occur. “Why did God let this happen?”, “Why do good people suffer?”, “Why does God allow natural disasters to destroy entire cities?”, Why this?”, “Why that?” Instead of wasting our time complaining about the fact that our problems exist, we should get busy finding a solution. Our time can be more efficiently spent doing the works Jesus did…telling the Good News to the lost…being a light instead of cursing the darkness.

Jesus continues answering the question of the disciples by telling them how to live out this kind of attitude.

Read vv. 4-5

When you find yourself in the middle of a big mess in your life, don’t get so distracted in life trying to solve puzzles that you fail to stay busy doing what God has called you to do! If He’s blessed you with a child – be the best parent you can be. Don’t allow your family to suffer because you’re facing problems at work. Don’t allow your marriage to fail because paying the bills is difficult.

If you will just use the gifts and abilities, the experiences, and the skills that God has already given you to further His kingdom, then you will find out that a lot of times your problems will work themselves out. God will add His big strength to your little strength! He will add His provision to your limited resources…Just like we saw in the miracle of the feeding of the 5,000.

While you’re looking for blessing and not blame, here’s the second eye-opener:

2. Look for God to work "outside the box”.

Notice carefully how Jesus performed the miracle in this man’s life.

Read v. 6

Now you would think that Jesus would just speak the words or simply touch the man’s eyes and heal him, but that’s not what He did. Jesus did something unusual, something unexpected.